We're looking for a Technical Project Manager to join our team.
This is not a conventional project management role. We are looking for an experienced PM who has delivered external, customer-facing software implementations against a contractual scope of work, and who has been close enough to the technology to understand what it takes to move a solution from requirements to production.
The Technical Project Manager leads end-to-end delivery of complex, multi-year implementations on our Evoke platform. Our engagements involve highly regulated state government environments, politically sensitive stakeholder ecosystems, and configuration-driven solutions built on a platform that is still being actively developed. You will be hands-on where it matters most, including requirements gathering and prioritization, configuration versus development tradeoffs, and complex data migrations.
Strong project managers who cannot engage at the technical level will struggle with the complexity of our engagements. Equally, technically strong candidates who have not delivered to a contract for an external client will not have the command these projects require. Both dimensions matter.
Reports to: Manager of Professional Services
Location: 100% Remote (must be eligible to work in the U.S.); Travel 10-15%.
Compensation: Base salary, commensurate with experience. Eligible for the company's commission plan and profit sharing.
About the Company
System Automation (SA) has built solutions for state and local regulatory agencies for over twenty-five years. Our SaaS platform is trusted by 500 government agencies, spans 5,000 industries, and serves over 20 million licensees.
Our mission is to positively disrupt the regulatory software market by incubating new ideas, collaborating with our customers, and building technology with real-world impact. We challenge the status quo, aren't afraid to experiment, and build products that improve the states and cities we live in.
JOB REQUIREMENTS
Technical Engagement & Delivery Oversight
• Closely oversee requirements gathering and prioritization, ensuring every requirement traces to the contracted scope and carries clear acceptance criteria before it enters the build queue.
• Guide tradeoffs between configuration and development with Solution Architects and Functional Consultants. Favor reusable configuration and templates.
• Oversee complex data migrations, including mapping, mock conversions, reconciliation, and cutover readiness.
• Review proposed solution approaches before build, raising gaps, misalignments with user stories, and risks before they are locked into the project plan.
• Deliver on a platform under active development by staying current on Evoke releases, identifying opportunities to use new capabilities, and surfacing platform gaps to product and engineering.
• Maintain working awareness platform constraints, data residency, and compliance considerations, and make sure they are accounted for in planning and design.
• Translate technical tradeoffs into clear, decision-ready communications for non-technical client stakeholders and executive sponsors.
Project & Program Management
• Own the full project lifecycle, from initiation through closure, on multi-year, multi-stakeholder government implementations.
• Develop and maintain resource-loaded schedules, and manage milestones, resource allocations, and time budgets with precision.
• Drive milestone completion and profitability targets in coordination with the Professional Services Manager and leadership team.
• Manage delivery against the contracted scope of work, escalating scope creep with documented analysis and a recommended disposition before it affects budget or schedule.
• Manage risk registers with rigor, including quantification, ownership, and tracked mitigation across the project portfolio.
• Produce accurate, professional status reports for internal leadership and client audiences.
• Support business development through proposal scoping, effort estimation, and project plan development.
Stakeholder Management & Client Engagement
• Navigate stakeholder environments with competing interests, politically motivated demands, and shifting priorities across agency leadership, program staff, and end users.
• Serve as the primary point of accountability for client relationships on assigned projects, maintaining trust through difficult conversations on scope, timelines, and budget.
• Run structured weekly status meetings with client stakeholders and facilitate executive-level reviews with appropriate preparation and gravitas.
• Collaborate with the Support Manager, Solution Architects, and functional leadership to coordinate resources, resolve cross-functional issues, and ensure a smooth transition to post-go-live support.
PMO & Quality Governance
• Enforce delivery standards, including documentation quality, acceptance criteria rigor, and milestone completion gates.
• Champion backlog prioritization discipline so development effort goes to contractually mandated requirements in order of client value.
• Hold team members accountable for task completion, deliverable quality, and professional conduct in client-facing interactions.
• Forecast milestone completion and financial burn in Workday Adaptive, and surface early warnings when projects deviate from plan.
Qualifications
Experience
• 4+ years managing external, customer-facing software implementation projects where scope, deliverables, and acceptance are defined in a contract, with responsibility for schedule, budget, and client relationship. Projects must include a full requirements, design, build, and feedback loop, not only deployment of packaged software.
• Hands-on involvement in complex data migrations from legacy systems.
• Experience managing mixed teams of employees and external contractors.
Preferred Experience
• Past projects that built custom solutions on a low-code or no-code platform, using reusable configuration and templates. Qualifying platforms include Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft Power Platform, Appian, Pega, OutSystems, Mendix, or comparable platforms.
• Exposure to government customers or highly regulated industries. Direct domain experience in professional licensing, permitting, enforcement, inspections, investigations, or compliance management will be given significant preference.
• Projects with budgets over $1M and durations of 12+ months.
Technical Foundation (meet at least one)
• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in an information technology discipline, such as computer science, software engineering, or information systems.
• Professional experience as a programmer, developer, or solution or technical architect.
• Professional experience as a product owner or product manager responsible for requirements and backlog on a software product.
• Professional experience as a project manager of a custom software project, not an ERP, CRM, or COTS product implementation.
Technical Proficiency
• Working understanding of cloud platform architecture, preferably Microsoft Azure.
• Verifiable experience running agile and blended waterfall/agile projects, with the ability to meet government clients where they are and bring them progressively toward iterative delivery.
• Ability to read and critically evaluate technical documentation, data models, integration designs, and workflow specifications.
• Proficiency with Jira, including workflows, board configuration, and automation rules, used as a delivery management tool and not only a task tracker.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Project and/or Unanet for schedule management. Familiarity with financial forecasting tools is preferred.
• Enough technical fluency to recognize when a proposed approach raises delivery risk, and to ask the right questions rather than accept every recommendation at face value.
Certifications
• PMP or PRINCE2 is desirable but not required. Verifiable experience and outcomes are weighted heavily.
• Scrum Master or SAFe is preferred.
• Azure or low-code platform certification is a meaningful differentiator.
Competencies & Personal Attributes
The following attributes are as important as the technical and experiential qualifications above.
• Executive Presence. You command a room, with clients, contractors, and internal leadership alike, through preparation, clarity, and composure.
• Structured Thinking. You impose order on complexity. You decompose problems systematically, distinguish symptoms from root causes, and communicate findings without oversimplification.
• Accountability Orientation. You hold yourself and your teams to commitments. When things go wrong, you lead the recovery and do not redistribute blame.
• Stakeholder Empathy. You understand that government clients operate under political, organizational, and budgetary constraints that require patience, adaptability, and the ability to build trust incrementally.
• Scope Discipline. You treat scope creep as a delivery risk, not a customer service opportunity. You manage to the contract, say no constructively, and document the implications of yes.
• Technical Curiosity. You are genuinely interested in how software gets built, not just whether it gets shipped. You ask hard questions about platform behavior, configuration choices, and implementation tradeoffs because you have been close enough to the work to know what can go wrong.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Hiring Process: Application review -- interviews and technical assessment -- conditional offer
Security Screening: Due to the sensitive nature of IT systems and data access, final candidates will receive a conditional employment offer contingent upon successful completion of a drug screening and a fingerprint-based background investigation.
We may use technology-assisted tools, including artificial intelligence tools, to assist recruiters and hiring managers in reviewing application materials and identifying qualifications relevant to a position. These tools support, but do not replace human decision-making. All employment decisions are made by qualified human reviewers. Applicants requiring accommodation during the application or selection process may contact us at hr@systemautomation.com.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.